The partnership will aid Cambridgeshire and the wider region to meet carbon-cutting goals – Gowithstock Shutterstock
Bouygues Energies & Services and SSE Enterprise are preferred partners to develop a series of framework energy projects to help Cambridgeshire County Council and its local authority partners to decarbonise by 2050.
The value of projects for the framework is about £80 million over four years. Bouygues and business energy consultant SSE Enterprise will form a joint venture to deliver the framework involving the design, construction and delivery of projects to help the county reach its goal of 100 per cent clean energy and net-zero carbon emissions.
Under the agreement, the partnership will work with five Cambridgeshire authorities: Cambridgeshire County Council, Cambridge City Council, Fenland District Council, Huntingdonshire District Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council.
Projects will include work to improve the energy performance of publicly owned assets such as buildings and car parks using measures to boost energy efficiency and generate low or zero-carbon energy from the rural estate, transport and other assets. Other projects will look at options for energy storage and low-carbon heating, including district and community heating networks.
For transport, the framework will look at local possibilities to support the transition to electric vehicles through the provision of infrastructure such as EV charging points and hubs.
As part of its green economic recovery envisaged following the Covid-19 pandemic, Cambridgeshire County Council and its local authority partners wish to leverage the framework to generate fresh business opportunities to develop low-carbon and smart communities. The councils also aim to make annual energy savings using innovative smart building solutions to decarbonise their estates using a combination of energy efficiency and zero-carbon generation technologies.
The decarbonisation of heating forms part of the ambitions for energy projects developed under the framework and will also improve air quality and cut local pollution. In 2017, Cambridgeshire emitted over 6.1 million tonnes of CO2 – half from homes and buildings. Under the new framework schools, housing, transport, public buildings and farms will be targeted for carbon reductions.
Green measures already implemented by Cambridgeshire include investment in the generation of renewable heat and electricity and the installation of Building Energy Management Systems (BEMS). These initiatives have generated annual savings and additional revenue of £1.3 million and cut the county’s annual carbon emissions by almost 7,000 tonnes.
The new framework will build on these achievements, extending the reach and scale of local energy initiatives and accelerating the county’s path to carbon neutrality. An access agreement arrangement means the framework is also being made available to other local authorities in England. The value of projects which may be undertaken under the access agreement is estimated to be up to an additional £30 million over the four-year period.
Bouygues Energies and Services and SSE Enterprise were chosen as service providers because of their ability to develop local smart energy systems specifically designed to help councils cut energy bills and provide green heat and electricity.
The strategic stakeholders of the Bouygues Energies & Services and SSE Enterprise consortium said: “Cambridgeshire is one of the fastest-growing counties in the country and will be an important growth engine for the UK's post-Covid economy. Home to a thriving tech scene, world-leading research community and beautiful and historic scenery, it’s an ideal location to demonstrate how local authorities can support the development of low-carbon communities. This ambitious framework will deliver energy solutions that will help the region on its journey to net-zero.”
Image credit | Gowithstock Shutterstock